A Chicago alderman said that he'd been promised by a Chick-fil-A executive that the company would no longer give money to groups that opposed gay marriage, apparently giving in after threatened with bans from some Northern cities. In return, the alderman said he'd stop blocking the company's efforts to bring its franchises to the area he represents.

Not surprisingly, conservatives who'd stood by the company were furious.

"I'm disgusted that your faith is so weak," one commenter posted to the Chick-fil-A Facebook page. "You sure raked in the bucks on Chick Fil A day huh? So when do you start opening on Sunday? 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.'"

Chick-fil-A's PR arm tried to tamp down the newest twist on the controversy by putting out a vaguely worded press release clearly attempting to calm both sides down.

"For many months now, Chick-fil-A’s corporate giving has been mischaracterized. And while our sincere intent has been to remain out of this political and social debate, events from Chicago this week have once again resulted in questions around our giving. ...

"A part of our corporate commitment is to be responsible stewards of all that God has entrusted to us. Because of this commitment, Chick-fil-A’s giving heritage is focused on programs that educate youth, strengthen families and enrich marriages, and support communities. We will continue to focus our giving in those areas. Our intent is not to support political or social agendas.

"As we have stated, the Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators."

Cathy, however, came out swinging, Tweeting Chick-fil-A's support of the Marriage and Family Foundation (which opposed gay marriage), and saying that reports that Chick-fil-A's socially conservative values had been plucked were off-base.

"There continues to be erroneous implications in the media that Chick-fil-A changed our practices and priorities in order to obtain permission for a new restaurant in Chicago," he told onetime GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee. "That is incorrect. Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been."

So, in one fell swoop, Chick-fil-A has prolonged its PR nightmare, continues to piss off liberals, and now has left conservatives feeling betrayed. There's possibly only one other corporation/person having as rotten a week in the public eye right now?

Personally, I'd like to thank CFA for gving me an opportunity to teach my son about voting with our wallets. Also, the Modern Family bit with Lily during last night's Emmys was made much funnier because of them.